The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for manufacturing packing material and, more particularly, to an apparatus and method for manufacturing packing material that is compact in size and capable of producing packing material on demand and at a sufficient rate to satisfy multiple packing personnel needs on an immediate basis.
Packing material is needed in many different applications. In some installations where products are shipped on a daily basis, packing material is a critical element in a successful business operation. Often, large quantities of packing material must be kept on hand for such daily use, which encumbers valuable storage space.
It is therefore desirable to provide an apparatus and method for manufacturing packing material that is compact in size and capable of producing packing material on demand and at a sufficient rate to satisfy even large packing material needs. Devices and methods have been disclosed for on-site manufacturing of packing material. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,714,506 discloses a method for making a packing material from a web material. In the method, edges of the web material are heat-pressed to form a continuous cylindrical body. The cylindrical body is then heat-pressed at suitable intervals to obtain a plurality of substantially triangular-shaped hollow units connected in series. With this method, however, the intricate configuration required to form the triangular-shaped hollow units requires an increased number of moving parts and slows the manufacturing process.
A similar process is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,564,407. In this process, the web material is formed into a cylindrical shape and fusion bonded in the longitudinal direction by a longitudinal sealer. The cylindrical film is then fusion-bonded by a transverse sealer. The transverse sealer 16 consists of a pair of opposing stamping plates that converge on the cylindrical film to fusion-bond the cylindrical film into pockets. Similar to the device disclosed in the '506 patent, the transverse sealer according to the '407 patent requires the stamping plates to be constantly moved toward and away from each other to effect sealing, and the cylindrical film must be fed at a rate slow enough or even temporarily stopped to give the sealer 16 sufficient time to perform the fusion bond.